Reading the pictures in picturebooks is an activity in which the active cognitive structures of the reader
must be engaged. The cognitive activity of reading and grasping the meaning of a particular image is
closely connected to visual thinking. Visual perception, which plays a central role in visual thinking, is
essential both in the active intellectual performance of humans, as well as in intelligent, dynamic and creative
thinking. The present study has attempted to explain visual thinking by linking to theory and formulating
a learning model for the reading of picturebook pictures, while presenting a series of teaching plans which
focus on the teacher's questions and utilize picturebooks suited to each characteristic. The teacher's questions
seek to encourage various literary responses from children after they have read the picture or ‘visual image’.
Finally, it is expected that the theoretical implications of picture reading teaching methods based on visual
thinking theory and the cognitive characteristics of picture reading as derived in this study will improve
the picture reading ability of preschool age children and assist in their development as highly literate readers.